Chapter 5. I’ll Be Back
“Princess, it should go without saying, but this matter must remain an absolute secret.”
The Left Envoy gathered Wolyeong, the physician, and me together.
He had spent almost half the day looking as though his soul had left his body.
Apparently, he had finally regained his composure.
“The bloodline of the Cheon Family is not something this servant has the authority to decide. We must travel immediately to the Heavenly Mountains and report this matter to the Cult Leader. And, of course...”
The Left Envoy looked back and forth between me and the physician.
“Neither of you is to speak of this. That is not a request. It is a warning.”
“Understood, Left Envoy.”
“Yes, Uncle Left.”
A vein bulged on the Left Envoy's forehead.
He really did not seem to like me calling him Uncle Left.
Of course, I was deliberately doing it because I knew it irritated him.
“You. Your name was Bi Anso, correct?”
“Yes.”
“How old are you, and what is your sect?”
“Why are you suddenly interrogating me?”
“Do you have some special reason to hide it? Even if this old man does not ask, the Cult Leader certainly will. Do you intend to keep it secret in front of him too?”
Hmm.
That would not be wise.
If the Left Envoy's words were true, the current Cult Leader was a monster who had achieved Great Completion of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art.
“I turned thirty this year.”
“You are younger than I expected. Your face looks rather old.”
“...I’ll look my age once I trim my beard.”
“And your sect?”
I hesitated to reveal my sect.
Before its destruction, my sect had possessed a terrible reputation throughout the martial world.
That was why I had never told Wolyeong about it either.
The possibility was small, but perhaps there was some grudge between her people and my former sect that even I did not know about.
“Husband.”
“Yeah?”
“If you’re hesitating because of me, you don’t need to.”
I will not be trapped by the past.
That determination was clear in her firm gaze.
A laugh slipped from my mouth.
All the worries I had carried for so long suddenly felt insignificant.
Right.
Wolyeong must have been afraid to reveal her own identity too.
She carried the Heavenly Demon's blood.
It was a position that could make countless people fear her.
Even so, she trusted me and revealed who she really was.
Now it was my turn.
“Uncle Left, Physician, please give us some privacy.”
“What?”
“I will tell my secret only to Wolyeong. After that, I will not care who she chooses to tell.”
Wolyeong was a wise woman.
She often behaved childishly, but beneath that was a sharp insight capable of seeing through the heart of things.
I could trust her with my secret.
“Princess, what would you like us to do?”
“Do as my husband says. Please leave us alone.”
“Understood.”
The Left Envoy and physician left the cabin at Wolyeong's order.
Immediately afterward, she created a qi barrier around the house to prevent our voices from escaping.
She can create a qi barrier at her age?
Bloodline really is unfair.
“Somehow, we both ended up revealing secrets we’ve hidden for a long time.”
“I know. I expected this day would eventually come, but I didn’t think it would be this soon.”
The words would not easily leave my mouth.
I had already decided to tell her.
Yet when the moment arrived, only a sigh came out.
“You must have had quite the wild past. You can’t even bring yourself to talk about it.”
“It’s not exactly that. My sect simply made a lot of enemies throughout the martial world.”
“Who in the martial world doesn’t have grudges? You’re making it sound dramatic. Unless you came from an Assassin Hall or something.”
“...”
“Why aren’t you saying anything? You’re making me nervous. Don’t tell me that’s actually true.”
I could only nod.
Just as she had jokingly guessed, my sect had been an organization of assassins.
And at one time, it had been called the greatest, or perhaps the worst, assassin organization in the Central Plains.
“The Three-Nothing Sect.”
“That was my sect.”
Wolyeong's eyes widened.
“...The Three-Nothing Sect? The one formed by Baek Ro, the Thousand-Faced Soul-Stealing Ghost, who was called the greatest of the Unorthodox Path, and his twelve disciples?”
“Yes. The Three-Nothing Sect that was destroyed fourteen years ago after falling into the Martial Alliance's Heaven-Ensnaring Net.”
“But how? Every one of Baek Ro's disciples was a famous martial artist with a title. How did you survive?”
“I was the youngest disciple. My name and face had never become known. A lot of people died in the Heaven-Ensnaring Net that day, so the Martial Alliance simply assumed I was among the dead.”
Wolyeong froze with her eyes wide.
It seemed my background shocked her as much as her bloodline had shocked me.
It was understandable.
The entire Three-Nothing Sect was believed to have died fourteen years ago.
No one under heaven would have imagined the youngest disciple was still alive.
“I’m glad you didn’t reveal this in front of Uncle Left. There are Demon Venerables and Demon Generals within our Cult who hold grudges against the Three-Nothing Sect. If Uncle Left learned the truth, he might even use it as an excuse to get rid of you.”
“That’s terrifying.”
“I’ll keep this secret to myself. Although I will have to tell Father, meaning the Cult Leader.”
“You’re not disappointed in me?”
“Disappointed?”
Wolyeong laughed as if the question itself were ridiculous.
“I’m the daughter of the Heavenly Demon, the greatest public enemy of the orthodox martial world. Did you really think I would be disappointed because you used to be an assassin?”
“...”
“The Heavenly Demon's youngest daughter and the youngest disciple of the King of Assassins. We make a fitting pair.”
She accepted it so easily that I felt like a fool for worrying all this time.
Half a year ago, when I first found her, what would my life have become if the coin had landed on tails and I had left her to die?
The thought alone was horrifying.
“Could you ask Uncle Left to delay our departure to the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult by one day?”
“That’s fine, but why?”
“Once we leave, we probably won’t return for a while. I need to put a few things in order first.”
